Vice Chancellor Professor Malegapuru Makgoba,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am honoured to be invited as guest speaker at the launch of the book on University of KwaZulu-Natal’s merger written by members of the executive leadership of the university who served in various capacities since 2004 when the new university came into being. The launch of this book interests me as a psychologist, sociologist and now as the Minister of Higher Education and Training.
Although an extensive body of literature on mergers in higher education has been built up over the last two decades, such literature has focused on American, European and Australian institutions. There has been surprisingly very little literature on mergers of higher education institutions in South Africa. Even the few commentators who have ventured into this area, have done so from an academic analytical perspective or bystander position with most of them having never been involved directly in leading the process of managing or overseeing a merger. The authors of this book however, have had hands on experiences of conceptualising, planning, implementing, managing and driving a real merger process and it is those experiences that inform the various reflections contained in the book.
The whole merger process was a heavily contested issue, as the book itself highlights this and it will continue to be an arena of contestation. Some of the issues that continue to dodge the merger processes include the question of whether these were mergers or an unequal incorporation of former black institutions by former white institutions? Did these mergers lay a foundation for creating truly non-racial and non-sexist institutions or they simply reproduced and continue to reproduce racial, class inequalities and patriarchy?
In a way this book should assist to reflect on these, not in a backward looking manner, but in order to deepen the struggles for the realisation of the intended objectives by these mergers. One of the central questions posed, especially by those opposed to this exercise, was whether this government-led exercise constituted interference with academic freedom and autonomy? Indeed academic freedom and autonomy is important, but this should always be balanced with public accountability of our institutions in advancing a developmental agenda.
These two imperatives are not necessarily in contradiction, but to emphasise autonomy at the expense of our developmental objectives only serves to entrench interests that are inimical to our goals of educational transformation. There is also no inherent contradiction between the university’s role in knowledge production and specific developmental challenges of our country. In fact, as the book correctly argues, it is often on the terrain of tackling our developmental challenges that knowledge is produced whose relevance may also go beyond just this institution or our country.
However, taking forward the debate on the university mergers should not only be limited to the original goals of these mergers as identified in the late 1990s, important as these may be. We now also need to evaluate this experience and impact of the mergers against the background of the new imperatives and changing South African landscape in education in general, and higher education in particular. It also means continuing the old debates but in a new terrain. For instance, the old debates about differentiation and articulation must now take place within the context of refashioning the entire higher education sector to respond to the imperatives of a focus on building a differentiated post-school system and skills development, which is the central mandate of our department and one of the five government priorities.
This means, amongst other things, systematic and co-ordinated articulation amongst universities, as well as between universities, colleges and the adult education and training system. We also expect universities to clearly define their role in supporting the rest of the education system especially colleges and the schooling system. For instance, are we promoting and strengthening research and teaching on African languages so as to produce a different kind of a South African graduate and also produce enough primary school teachers competent in teaching in African language? It also means universities which dirty their hands in the process of grappling with our developmental objectives and climb down from ivory towers whilst performing their role as centres of knowledge production.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) merger was amongst the first mergers of higher education institutions to take place in South Africa. The merger process was part of government reforms aimed at reconfiguring higher education so as to make it more relevant and responsive to the needs of a developing society in the post 1994 era of democracy, and the knowledge and scholarship imperatives in a globally competitive world.
At the outset, considerable challenges faced the leadership of the new institution as it began to remake itself in an image consistent with the development trajectory. The manner in which new ground was broken, the challenges associated with changing mindsets, physical locations, the form and content of scholarship and the essence and appearance of the new university are all documented in this book.
As I understand, the objectives of the eleven chapters of the book are four fold:
- Firstly, to reflect on mergers in the context of South African Higher Education post-1994.
- Secondly, to analyse the context and challenges in merging Higher Education Institutions in South Africa.
- Thirdly, to analyse and evaluate the merger experience in the context of University of KwaZulu-Natal.
- Fourthly, to record historic views from an executive perspective on the emergence of UKZN, for the benefit of policy makers, academic administrators, students, researchers and the general public.
This book provides us with an opportunity to hold the mirror over our higher education landscape, to look at what has transpired and how it has evolved. For our new Department of Higher Education and Training, this critical reflection is invaluable as we shape a new post school sector and engage on what a differentiated landscape should look like. The reflective pieces in this book could provide a valuable basis for feeding into this dialogue.
Different chapters in the book speak to the history and context of higher education transformation in South Africa post 1994, brief histories of the former Universities of Natal and Durban-Westville, challenges inherent in the UKZN merger, and interim structures that were used to facilitate the merger processes. Very importantly, it sketches the implementation of the unique college model used at UKZN, its nature, characteristics and comparative advantages and the benefits and appropriateness of this model for the university.
The book also explores the way in which rationalisation of resources was secured, the extent to which the objectives of the merger were met and the transformation challenges reflected as a debate on academic freedom. It gives fascinating insight into the continuing tensions between the old order and the new, the tension between de-racialisation and re-racialisation and concludes with a sense of optimism for the future of a ground-breaking institution.
Looking back is not always easy as events tend to take on particular hues and perspectives. However, having looked back and given the successful state of the institution, does the book answer the question of how universities, unique and complex creatures, come into being and reflect a character and ethos that is distinctly South African and African? Sipho Seepe has asked the question: How do we now make education a force for transformation of our continent? How can Higher Education Institutions contribute to education as the practice of freedom?'(2004:11).
The vision of a rebirth of an African university much acclaimed by Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, rests on the assumption that the university’s primary objective, ‘the pursuit of knowledge, scholarship and excellence in teaching, research and community service’, must be put in context and rendered relevant – that is, it must serve primarily African interests (Makgoba 2004:11; see also Makgoba 1999).
Of course the book also tries to grapple with an important question of how we measure whether this merger has succeeded or is succeeding. For me the principal criteria on which we need to assess these mergers is whether they have created the conditions for the transformation of racial, gender and class based patterns of knowledge production in South Africa. Mergers were not merely a process of bringing together different institutions, but they were an intellectual project, whose foundations must be to tackle these principal contradictions that still face South African society.
Transformation of South African universities, according to Professor Makgoba should aim to deconstruct the ‘geopolitical imagination of apartheid engineers’ and to replace it with a system that is ‘more rational, more equitable and that will meet the knowledge demands of a developing African country in a highly competitive global environment’ (Makgoba 2004:11). If these weighty questions are tackled in this book and contribute to the debate then we are surely making progress on this matter.
Those who attended our Higher Education Summit held earlier this year will recall that I asked questions on the broader role of our universities and what the road map will look like in 15 to 20 years? I am sure that this research contribution could form part of our quest for answers. The fact that students form an integral part of the institution and therefore played a crucial role in the creation of the new university is recognised in the book which presents an overview of the student governance model adopted at UKZN. The complexities of student governance and the challenges inherent in optimising student participation in a multi-campus institution are given attention in this chapter.
The concepts of employment equity, access and transformation are also explored by looking at programmes and initiatives that foster these critical imperatives in post 1994 higher education and at UKZN in particular. The challenges of equity, access and transformation are just but a part of many other leadership challenges involved in managing the change process and in ensuring that the institution remained on course to meet its merger objectives. Deconstructing the legacy institutions, changing mindsets, rebranding the institution, dealing with human resource issues and union concerns and vigorous engagement on the nature and practice of academic freedom at UKZN all constituted part of the leadership challenges reflected upon.
Since the merger, the funding of the university by the Department of Higher Education and Training has grown from R716,4 million in 2004/05 to R1,343 billion in 2010/11, including earmarked funding and student financial aid. The university was paid a total amount of R168,059 million between the financial years 2005/06 to 2008. The university has been allocated R218,7 million for earmarked funding for infrastructure for 2010/11 and 2011/12.
This funding is a strategic lever for ensuring that the university grows from strength to strength. Since the start of the mergers, the department has had a dedicated unit that was finally closed at the end of March 2010 that assisted universities with the mergers. In April 2010, the Ministry held a Higher Education Stakeholder Summit that used the Soudien report on the transformation in higher education institutions as a basis for its discussions and commission work. A summit declaration has been issued that commits the Ministry and the department and the higher education sector to specific initiatives that will help to further improve the transformation in institutions, post the mergers.
In closing I would like to congratulate the authors on the good work undertaken, resulting in a book that will be of great value to the institution as well as the rest of the sector. Thank you very much for the opportunity to share with you the excitement in launching this book.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Ranjeni Munusamy
Tel: 012 312 5555 or 021-465 5513
Cell: 072 571 2812
E-mail: munusamy.r@dhet.gov.za
